1 . Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image-capturing apparatus and a control method therefor, and particularly, relates to an image-capturing apparatus having a function of detecting facial expressions and a control method therefor.
2 . Description of the Related Art
Recently, techniques for detecting facial expressions, in particular, facial expressions of a person, have been put to practical use, and an image-capturing apparatus is known that includes a mode in which an image is automatically captured when a person is detected to be smiling.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-005316 discloses an image-capturing apparatus that automatically captures an image when a person is detected to be smiling, in which focus detection and aperture control are performed when a shutter switch is pressed halfway, smile detection processing is started when the shutter switch is further pressed, and an image is captured upon detection of a smile.
With such an image-capturing apparatus having a function of automatically capturing an image upon detection of a person's smile (smile shutter function), there may be cases in which autofocusing processing is continuously performed in parallel with the smile detection. In this case, if the distance to the person whose smile is to be detected is greatly different from the focal length of the lens, smile detection is performed based on a blurred image, which may result in erroneous smile determination.